The Department of Art and Art History in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta in collaboration with HOASA (History of Art and Fine Arts Students Association) is commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of the great art critic and artist John Ruskin (1819-1900) in a public lecture entitled John Ruskin: Travels, Nature and Art by Mark Sagona.

Ruskin was the most significant art critic of the Victorian era and a polymath with wide-ranging interests in education, geology, science, politics, history, mythology and nature.  His writings left a decisive impact on the theory of art, architecture, design and the decorative arts, especially on the design reform movements of the second half of the 19th century. Besides his written works such as Modern Painters and The Stones of Venice, he was an extraordinarily-gifted draughtsman and watercolourist with an astonishing eye for detail. This lecture will celebrate and discuss the extraordinary artistic talent which emanates from the copious output of drawings and watercolours produced through his many travels across Europe.

Sagona, Ph.D., is Resident Academic in Decorative Arts in the Department of Art and Art History, Faculty of Arts at the University of Malta. Sagona has lectured, published and exhibited extensively both as an academic and a practising visual artist.

John Ruskin: Travels, Nature and Art, a lecture by Mark Sagona, will be held in the Arts Lecture Theatre (P.P. Saydon Lecture Hall) at the Msida Campus of the University of Malta on Wednesday, December 4 at 5.30pm. For details contact mark.sagona@um.edu.mt